


First Impressions

by half_sleeping



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-09-16
Packaged: 2018-02-17 15:10:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2313968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/half_sleeping/pseuds/half_sleeping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for KiKasa Week Day 1: First Impressions. </p><p>But Kise Ryouta, damn his eyes, is beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Impressions

"It’s confirmed," Coach says to Kasamatsu, calling him out of extra practice once the club has been dismissed. "Kise Ryouta is coming to Kaijou."

 Kasamatsu has to blink once before he recalls the name: Kise Ryouta, of Teikou’s Generation of Miracles. Next year, Teikou’s famous players are going to be coming to high school, and Kasamatsu dimly recalls speculation on where they’re going to go, how great it would be for a basketball school to have them. And Kaijou is going to have one. 

"Okay," Kasamatsu says. He doesn’t know what to feel about that. Elation? It’s always good to know you’re counting on a strong lineup. Disappointment? Maybe he’s not the best of the bunch. Enthusiasm? Kasamatsu is looking forward to the new year, but all the wishing in the world won’t make it come here faster. Terror. They had thought they were going to go all the way  _this_  year. They had. Had. 

Coach tries to hand him a file. “Look him over,” he says. 

Kasamatsu doesn’t take it. “What?” he manages, in a strangled voice.

"You’re the one who’s going to be his captain," Coach says, and oh yeah, that’s happening. It’s really happening. Kasamatsu has to take deep breath, even now. There has to be someone else, and there isn’t going to be. It becomes more real every day. Coach hands him the file. "Look it over, and get it back to me before you leave school today," he says. "Use the laptop in the clubroom if you need it." He pauses. "Kise Ryouta has a long way to go before he reaches his full potential. You’ll see it."

Kasamatsu nods. Looking over the scouted students is part of a captain’s job, too. Moriyama is just going to have to go through extra practice without him today. 

The very first thing which Kasamatsu sees as he opens the folder is a magazine article about the finals of the Middle School Nationals. The final score, against Meikou, was 111-11.  _This_ , Kasamatsu remembers. Kaijou had been kicked out of their tournament before that, and the middle school final was dramatic enough that high schoolers talked about what their juniors did for once, in defiance of strict social hierarchies. Teikou’s third consecutive Nationals win would have been something for them to talk about any day, but Kasamatsu has heard rumors that something else went down in the match that tournament. He doesn’t know how much to trust what he’s heard. It sounds crazy, some of it. It sounds, if it’s true, like Teikou deserves every bit of its bad reputation.  _  
_

There’s more Basketball Monthly clippings, older than the first article. There’s a profile of all five of the Generation of Miracles, and their team photo, the boys all smiling sweetly and joyously into the camera as though they’d never had a cruel thought in their lives, never crushed anyone in their relentless march for victory. Nijimura Shuuzou had been on the team back then. Kasamatsu has played him in a practice match, and had been blown away. They say that the Generation of Miracles have all far exceeded their senior.

Kasamatsu loads up the cd and presses play. He discovers something, watching Teikou’s team play. Kise Ryouta may not be playing to his full potential. And he may be, from what Kasamatsu has heard about the 111-11 incident, the devil.

But Kise Ryouta, damn his eyes, is beautiful. He moves like he’ll never do anything better in his life, like he never has. Like he’s never missed a shot or a step or a- never will.

Kasamastu would kill to move like he does, and all through the game his eyes never leave Teikou’s number eight, mesmerized. 

The tape ends when Teikou’s center- Murasakibara Atsushi, a monster with human shape- drops the ball through Meikou’s goal for them. Well. It would. The game ends there too. 

If they did it on purpose, that’s one thing, but that they could have done it at all… Kasamatsu isn’t sure which is better or worse. (And where that leaves him, if he’s going to have one of Teikou’s geniuses on his team.)

The last item in the- Kasamatsu can’t help thinking  _dossier_ , like Kaijou is preparing for war- is a photocopy of Kise Ryouta’s direct entry form. It’s pretty standard, down to the awful last exam grades, like so many of Kaijou’s direct entry students. Many of them write trite nonsense in their  _Reason for Joining Club_  space, or leave it blank entirely. Kise Ryouta writes  _Victory_ , a single sharp character. The sight of it stabs Kasamatsu to the soul. 

And that’s the size of it, as far as Kasamatsu can see. If Kaijou wants to have any kind of stake in future Nationals, they’ve done well to secure a monster like this. Only time and Kasamatsu’s own ability will tell if they can handle Kise Ryouta. 

And of course, only time and Kise Ryouta will tell if he can handle _them_. 


End file.
